Title: Distressingly loud music in Tesco

Autistic individual

Experience

In my local Tesco, there are only two "quiet hours" a week, one of which is during a busy time on Saturday mornings, so really there is only one "quiet hour". During the quiet hour there is no music and no public announcements and the lights are dimmer. But when the "quiet hour" finishes, they turn the lights back up brighter and the music comes on, full volume, which in my Tesco is really really loud! When I go to Tesco I wear a cap with a peak, ear plugs and ear defenders over the top of the ear plugs. Sometimes I wear sunglasses too but they interfere with the ear defenders. I only go to Tesco once a week but I can't always go during the "quiet hour" and sometimes I am still in the shop when "quiet hour finishes" because it can take me a long time to make decisions and I am always polite and give way to/wait for other people. The music in Tesco used to be manageable because they didn't play the music that loud and it was more gentle music, so I could cope with just ear plugs, but now it is very hard and uncomfortable for me to be in the shop outside of the quiet hour. Even with the ear plugs and ear defenders over the top, the music is still too loud and causes me a lot of distress. It scrambles up my head, stops me from being able to think properly in order to make decisions and choose vegetables, and at it's worst it makes me panic and even dissociate if I get too overwhelmed. The music they play is very stressful music, as well as being loud, it is a frantic, pounding and inharmonious sort of music. When I get home I am exhausted for the rest of the day. Once I asked them if they could have quieter, calmer music for the first half an hour after the quiet hour, to give people still in the shop a chance to escape, and for three weeks they did. It was so much better and I did not need to wear ear defenders. I stopped dreading the weekly Tesco visit so much. But perhaps then the manager might have said they aren't allowed to do that as the next week it was louder than ever and it has been like a disco rave in Tesco ever since! To me it is like having a wheelchair access ramp that they only put down once a week for one hour, so for the rest of the week wheelchair users cannot easily access the store. This is what it is like for people who are noise sensitive now they have decided to play very loud piped music throughout the store.

What could have made the experience better?

I think Tesco should have more "quiet hours" as one hour on Wednesday morning and one hour on Saturday morning is not enough. At the end of the "quiet hour" there is a good chance that some people with autism, sensory differences, hearing difficulties or who prefer to shop in a calm environment could still be in the store. There should be a "buffer zone" where for at least half an hour when the music comes back on, it should be calm and not full volume. It is incredibly distressing to be in the shop when it suddenly comes on at full volume and the lights are turned up at the same time! Playing very loud music piped from different speakers all around the store makes Tesco inaccessible for some people, it doesn't have to be so loud, it should be gentle background noise not so loud that you can not think or talk or hear anything else. My tips for others experiencing the same thing would be 1) Go in a "quiet hour" if you can 2) Wear earplugs with ear defenders over the top. This combination still doesn't block out all the music but it is better than either ear plugs or ear defenders alone. 3) Wear a hat with a peak or sunglasses or both to block out some of the bright lights and might make it slightly easier to cope with all the music.